Kiddi Caru Nursery

Kiddi Caru Nursery Hythe Quay, Colchester, ESSEX, CO2 8JB

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 27/05/2014 16/09/2008

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 3 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 The quality of teaching is good. Children learn through a wide and exciting range of learning experiences provided for them by knowledgeable staff, who understand each child's learning needs and style.  Children are very effectively protected from harm as staff demonstrate a robust understanding of their responsibilities with regards to safeguarding children. Staff frequently update their safeguarding knowledge, through external training courses and in-house training events.  Partnerships with parents are very strong. Staff enthusiastically encourage parents to play an active role in their children's learning. Parents meet regularly with their child's key person to discuss their progress, providing an effective two-way flow of information, to ensure that key persons are aware of any learning that takes place outside of the nursery environment.  Children form very close and caring relationships with the staff who are working in the

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This provision is good

nursery. Staff actively promote this through their effective settling-in procedures, good transition arrangements between nursery rooms and effective communication with parents, to ensure they are aware of any changes in the children's lives.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Arrangements for managing resources, when children transport toys and equipment from the indoors to the outdoors, are not closely monitored. This results in some areas of within the pre-school room not being resourced to the best possible effect.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are:  scheduled at least once in every inspection cycle – the current cycle ends on 31 July

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Information about this inspection

 scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged inadequate  brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection  prioritised where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe  scheduled at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities in the five playrooms being used at the time of the inspection and viewed all other areas of the nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held discussions with a director of the company, the manager, the deputy, the special educational needs coordinator, other staff and children at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager and discussed various aspects of the inspection throughout the day.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at a range of records and documentation including children's registration details, information about children's learning and development, information regarding the checks used to assess the suitability of all adults working at the nursery, written policies and risk assessments, accident and medication records, the daily attendance registers and a written log of complaints.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to at the time of the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Kiddi Caru Nursery was registered in 2002 and is on the Early Years Register. It is situated in purpose-built premises in the Colchester area of Essex. It is managed by a private company. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It operates from six playrooms and there is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery employs 34 members of childcare staff. Of these, 33 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2, 3, 4 and 6, including one with Qualified Teacher Status. The nursery opens Monday to Friday all year round. Sessions are from 8am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 170 children attending who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

 monitor the way in which the children move toys and play equipment from the indoor to the outdoor environment. Review the impact that this has on the quality of the indoor learning environment, to ensure that there is always a good balance of stimulating resources, indoors as well as outdoors.

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who attend

Children actively participate in a wide and exciting range of learning opportunities. They make choices over their learning as well as participating in planned, adult-led activities. Staff demonstrate a secure understanding of how children learn and use this knowledge to plan an effective, well-considered and stimulating educational programme within each of the six core rooms. Key persons observe the children in their key groups and record their observations in clearly presented learning journals. The observations are used to identify children's next steps in learning and to reflect their individual learning styles. Parents are provided with regular summative assessments of their children's development and are asked to comment on their children's learning within the nursery and at home. Key persons demonstrate a sharp focus on each of their key children's development, which ensures that every child's needs are effectively met and that any gaps in their learning are

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who attend

proficiently identified. Key persons work alongside the nursery's special educational needs coordinator, to seek appropriate interventions, to help to close any gaps in children's learning. Evidence recorded in some children's learning journals, shows how this has been successfully followed through. For example, children with identified learning needs, such as speech and language delay, have been placed on an individual educational plan and professional support sought. By the time they are ready to leave the nursery, they have caught up with their expected development bands and have been taken off of the individual plan. Evidence shows that all children, including those with English as an additional language and children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress across all aspects of learning.

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who attend

Children have great fun at the nursery. They are keen and active learners who enjoy being able to guide their own experiences. The outdoor environment is extremely well used as a learning tool. Within the individual nursery gardens, children have excellent opportunities to explore number and literacy, immerse themselves in role play, increase their knowledge of the world and develop their physical skills. The introduction of a mud kitchen has proven very successful with children creating exciting masterpieces from mud. They make very good use of the real household resources provided for them and enjoy transporting their play from one area of the garden to another and even indoors. Hand water pumps, in some of the gardens, enable children to pump water into the garden space to use in play. An exciting construction area provides interesting opportunities for children to build and develop intricate games relating to construction. Children develop knowledge about

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who attend

nature and the living world when they explore insects, birds and plants. They grow a range of herbs and vegetables in raised gardens within the nursery environment and harvest their produce in the Autumn. Children learn how to care for animals, when they feed and clean out the various nursery pets living at the setting.

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who attend

Children's communication and language skills are effectively promoted by staff who speak to children clearly, ask appropriate questions to extend their thinking and provide them with a good amount of time to consider their thoughts and responses. Children enjoy making marks with a wide and exciting range of materials and participate in this exploration of early writing skills from a very early age. This results in older children in the pre-school room being able to write their own names. They are also proficient artists, creating well-considered, self-portraits to identify their individual coat pegs. The nursery actively encourages children who speak English as an additional language to use their home language in play. They create opportunities for this by translating and labelling various items and aspects of the nursery environment in appropriate languages. Babies enjoy moving freely around a well-equipped space, exploring the range of resources and

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who attend

equipment on offer to them. They make good use of a wide range of natural and heuristic materials, enabling them to experience different textures and to follow their natural curiosity to see how things work. Those babies who are ready to begin exploring the world from a standing position, are provided with equipment to enable them to do so safely and to move around furniture and resources confidently. Staff are always on hand to support children through each stage of development and to provide appropriate equipment to enable them to achieve their chosen goal. The nursery's wide range of learning opportunities provides older children in the pre-school room with the skills to be independent and successful learners. They are effectively prepared for their next stages of learning as staff recognise the importance of preparing children, in readiness for school.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The nursery has clear settling-in procedures, which ensure children are settled, confident and relaxed in the nursery environment. Children form close and trusting relationships with the staff who care for them. Key persons ask parents to provide them with a good amount of information about their children during the registration process. This information is used effectively to inform key persons about the children's interests and family make-up and provides some information about their staring points and capabilities. The key person system is well embedded and each key person is supported by a buddy, who covers and provides individual attention to children in the absence of the main key person. Parents, spoken to during the inspection, demonstrate a secure knowledge of their child's key person and meet with them on a regular basis to discuss their child's needs and to share information about their learning requirements. Children can be seen, throughout

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

the nursery, giving their favourite adult a hug. Staff respond affectionately, providing children with a strong sense of belonging and promoting their emotional well-being. In addition, staff work sensitively with the children, helping them to emotionally prepare for their transition into the next playroom and ultimately onto school.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children behave well within the nursery. They are reminded of the nursery's simple rules during registration and group activities and follow these well. Staff act as good role models, using clear language to speak to the children and to each other. The effective adult to child ratios within each room, enable staff to be well-deployed to support children. Children's positive behaviour towards each other demonstrates that they feel safe and secure within the nursery environment. For example, more confident children are seen supporting younger or less confident children, by showing them where toys go and how to manoeuvre from the indoor to outdoor environments. Staff and the management team have given careful consideration to creating an enabling and exciting environment in each of the six core playrooms. A number of the rooms lead directly out to one of the nursery gardens or the courtyard. All of these are exciting spaces, full of wonderful opportunities

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

for children to explore, create, express themselves and guide their own learning. Children in the rooms that have this provision choose when to learn outdoors as they are provided with the opportunity to move between the indoors and outdoors throughout the day. Staff working in the rooms, which do not have direct access to a garden, manage the use of the outdoor space effectively to ensure children are provided with good opportunities to experience outdoor learning. Children are actively encouraged to transport resources and materials from the indoor to the outdoors and back again. While this provides excellent opportunities for children to guide their own learning, it occasionally results in areas of the indoor provision being poorly resourced. For example, throughout the inspection, the book corner in the pre-school room had very few books. Children entered the book corner with the intention of looking at books, but when they found, such as small selection, they

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

withdrew. The books were available, but were outside.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children develop a secure knowledge of keeping themselves healthy and safe. They are encouraged to learn about taking some risks, for example, they set the tables at mealtimes and take their own plates and cutlery to the communal clearing table when they have finished. This involves carrying cutlery from one place to another and negotiating the safest path from their table to the communal space. Children enjoy an exciting range of meals and snacks provided by the nursery. A nursery cook prepares fresh, home cooked meals each day and takes careful account of all children's dietary and medical needs. An effective place mat and colour coded plate system ensures that all staff are aware of every children's dietary needs or allergies. Children are provided with very good opportunities to develop independence skills during routine activities, such as snack and lunch times. Children choose to help set the tables, carefully setting each table with

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

the correct amount of plates, cups and cutlery for each child. They fill the water jugs with cold, fresh water from the water dispenser and place them proficiently on each table. Staff use this activity to promote children language skills and number use, asking them to count the number of chairs and to match that number with the correct cutlery and plates.

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provision

Children are very effectively protected from harm as the nursery places a high emphasis on safeguarding children. All staff receive appropriate training to ensure that their base- line knowledge of safeguarding children is appropriate. They are then encouraged to build upon this knowledge through further training and through in-house training events and meetings. The higher management team, which includes one of the directors and an area coordinator, often carries out training seminars where it focuses on one aspect of safeguarding and thoroughly reviews all of the staff's knowledge of the subject. This results in staff who are able to talk confidently about their responsibilities with regard to recognising any signs and symptoms of abuse. They are knowledgeable about how to take the correct and swift action to refer their concerns to the appropriate designated person within the nursery. The nursery chain has clear procedures on issues, such as 'whistle

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provision

blowing' and encourages all of its employees to feel confident to 'have a voice' within the nursery and within the larger company. All staff working in the nursery, including bank and domestic support staff, hold appropriate qualifications and have been vetted through the nursery's robust vetting system. Proof of the checks used to assess their suitability and their clearance are held on file and are accessible for inspection at any time. The effective use of risk assessments, indoors and outdoors, ensures that children play in a safe and secure environment.

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provision

The nursery is one of 20 owned and run by a private childcare corporation company. There is an effective management team, comprising of the directors, the area coordinator, the nursery manager, the deputy and three team leaders. The management team supports a very large team of staff and each room has a core team that works specifically in that room. The team are led and managed by a room leader, who feeds back and reports to the team managers. The nursery uses a small team of regular bank staff to cover any sickness or absences, which promotes consistency for the children if their main carer is absent. All staff demonstrate a good knowledge of how children learn and of the seven areas of learning. This enables them to deliver an educational programme, which is effective, exciting and purposeful. The management team takes responsibility for monitoring the planning to ensure that all areas of learning are covered throughout the

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provision

day. The team also monitors the effectiveness of the individual children's learning journals to ensure that key persons are completing observations and assessments in line with the nursery's procedures. The management team is in the process of reviewing this system to ensure that monitoring of all aspects of the nursery are tighter, for example by delegating specific roles to individual team members. The nursery uses self-evaluation and reflective practice effectively to identify strengths and weaknesses and to set clear targets for improvement. A file, containing clear information about past and future development plans, evidences the journey the nursery has taken over the past few years and shows a wide range of changes and improvements. For example, all of the outdoor provision has been thoroughly reviewed and improved to create exciting learning environments. An effective appraisal and supervision system ensures that management are able to keep a

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provision

sharp focus on the staff's personal and professional development. The management team monitors training needs and identifies individual staff's strengths through this process.

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provision

Partnerships with parents and carers are strong. The nursery provides parents with clear written information about policies and procedures and regularly updates them if any changes are implemented through these procedures. Parents spoken to at the time of the inspection express complete confidence in the staff and comment on how friendly and approachable they are. They state that their children are making good progress through the nursery's effective planning and feel very involved in their children's learning. The nursery works well with representatives from the local authority, who support them and provide advice and assistance, especially when the nursery is managing change. The nursery has good links with schools, which children leaving the setting will attend. They invite reception class teachers in to meet the children during the term prior to starting school and work with the schools to establish good knowledge about their uniforms, ethos

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provision

and expectation of children entering the reception class. This is effectively relayed to the children through role play, group discussions and photographs. The nursery has systems in place to enable it to work effectively with other early years settings, which children attend. This promotes an effective two-way flow of information sharing and enables them to complement the learning that takes place in both provisions.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Outstanding provision is highly effective in meeting the needs of all children exceptionally well. This ensures that children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning. Grade 2 Good Good provision is effective in delivering provision that meets the needs of all children well. This ensures children are ready for the next stage of their learning. Grade 3 Requires improvement The provision is not giving children a good standard of early years education and/or there are minor breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected within twelve months of the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate Provision that is inadequate requires significant improvement and/or enforcement action. The provision is failing to give children an acceptable standard of early years education and/or is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of

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Grade Judgement Description

the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider does not meet the requirements for registration.

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Inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and care, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY229919 Local authority Essex Inspection number 910304

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 122 Number of children on roll 170 Name of provider The Childcare Corporation Plc Date of previous inspection 16/09/2008 Telephone number 01206 871700

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Type of provision

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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